178 Bulletin, Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. IV 



vol. VIII, p. 103, pi. 3, figs. 5, 5b, pi. 7, figs. 2-2d, 3-3b, pi. 7, 

 figs. 2-2d, 3-3b, 1881; Kept. U. S. Fish Comm. for 1879, p. 175, 

 pi. 33, pi. 34, fig. 1, 1882 ; Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. XI, p. Ill, 

 1883-85. 

 Rossia tenera Hoyle, Rept. Sci. Res. "Challenger," Zool., vol. XVI, 

 p. 118, 1886.— Joubin, Mem. Soc. Zool. France, vol. 15, p. 138, 

 figs. 37 a-e, 1902. — Boone, Lee, Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., 

 vol. I, art. 3, p. 19, 1928. 



Family: LOLIGINIDAE. 

 Genus: LOLIGO Lamarck. 

 Loligo brevis Blainville. 



Plate 111. 



Type: Blainville 's type material came from Brazil and the coast 

 of the Carolinas, and is deposited in the Paris Museum. 



Distribution: West Indian region, having been recorded from 

 Florida to Brazil, including several records from along the Gulf Coast 

 of the southern United States. There is one record of its occurrence 

 at Delaware Bay and another at Hampton Roads, Va. 



Material examined: One specimen taken at Hogsty Island, San 

 Salvador, British West Indies, February 13, 1926. One young speci- 

 men taken at Limon Bay, Panama, in dragnet, 1 2/3 fms., January 

 21, 1928. 



Color: The color of the living animal has not been recorded. In 

 alcoholic specimens the ground color approximates that of Loligo 

 pealeii and the chromatophores are rather large, abundant, reddish. 



Life history: Unrecorded. 



Technical description: This species is small and stout as com- 

 pared to Loligo pealeii, average size specimens of L. brevis having 

 a mantle length of 60 to 70 mm., the largest specimen so far recorded 

 measuring 130 mm. mantle length. Body stout, cylindrical, tapered 

 to a blunt broad point, the greatest width of the mantle being equal 

 to one-fourth of its length; length of caudal fin from insertion to tip 

 almost equal to one-half of mantle length ; caudal fins widely rounded 

 forming a broad oval, as contrasted to the rhomboidal contour of 

 those of L. pealeii. The anterior margin of the mantle is produced 

 to a prominent rounded triangle in the median dorsal line, on either 

 side of which it slopes backward; the ventral margin is produced 



